Ed Boon teases new Mortal Kombat with decreasing subtlety

NetherRealm Studios creative director Ed Boon has been offering innocuous images seemingly suggesting a new Mortal Kombat game on the horizon for quite a while now, but with yesterday's appearance of a leaked promotional poster, the franchise co-creator has grown much less coy.

The poster that appeared on Reddit features a mangled human spine, the familiar dragon's head logo of the Mortal Kombat series, and the phrase "Who's Next?" Though his earlier attempts at teasing fans were far more obscure - this photo of a car's bumper would be dull coming from anyone but Boon - Boon embraced the poster, borrowing that monochrome dragon's head for use as his Twitter icon and replacing his account's header image with that "Who's Next?" slogan.

Following a host of questions from fans, Boon has apparently given up on his attempts to tease his Twitter followers. "I don't suppose there's anything I can do to make you think we still MIGHT be announcing Injustice 2 in #five days is there.....?" Boon later asked no one in particular.

Assuming there is a new Mortal Kombat in the works, it seems quite likely that we'll hear all about it at the upcoming E3 conference, though Boon may spill the beans a bit early. That "MKX" bumper photograph was part of a slow countdown Boon had been updating on Twitter that is slated to hit zero on June 2. We'll keep a close eye on NetherRealm Studios, and report back on anything that might emerge.